The joint venture with the American Salaryman in Tokyo known as the Victory Duo Project comes to a close. See the galleries with both MS here and here.
Let's have one final look at my V Gundam as I give my final thoughts. First off, though, let's talk specs.
Colours used:
Tamiya TS-37 Lavendar
Tamiya TS-56 Brilliant Orange
Mr. Hobby 8 Silver
Topcoat: Mr. Hobby Gloss
Decals: Bandai Victory Gundam decals (x2)
Parts: Aurora stickers for the eyes.
My first thoughts when putting together this kit, "Wow, this thing is really small."
My final thoughts when seeing the completed kit among his new friends on my work desk, "Wow, this thing is really small."
There's a lot going on with this kit, and this seems to be a staple of the Version Katoki kits. I prefer my kits to be a little advanced when it comes to engineering so this was a good thing. The transformation gimmick added to the impressiveness of such a small kit.
Let's have a look at this kit in its different modes.
Looks very Y-Wingish, if you ask me.
How do you get this thing into its different configurations? For the most part, it isn't terribly difficult. You do need patience and a light touch. Paying particular care and attention not to scrape off a decal when switching. Don't ask me how I know.
You have three different sections; The bottom half (for the bottom fighter), The top half (for the top fighter) and the core fighter. I really am impressed that they gave you enough pieces to make two different fighters, one for Victory and another for Hexa. Two complete core fighters? I'll take 'em!
Start off like this:
Move some things around.
click/snap
Voila! Just attach the Core fighter and you're good to go. This was the easy half.
The Victory Crab makes another appearance!
I had wanted to pose my Victory in some cool action shots but it proved too difficult and I lost patience and gave up. In order to get this guy on the stand you have to attach him by the bottom of the skirt, however, that part is made to open and flip so it never stays together tightly enough to allow the stand attachment to grab hold. The result was my Victory kept falling off the stand and hitting the table. So I said, "Screw it" and just went ahead and transformed him seeing as he wasn't staying together anyways. This is a big drawback for me. With the design of the hips, there is almost no posability. You really only can bend the knees. The arms are slightly better but the construction of the shoulder can get in the way quite easily. This things literally stays together by sliding the bottom half into the top half which means it will come apart just as easily and a lot of times when you don't want it to.
Final word;
The fact that I was building this kit as a joint project with a fellow gunplar kept me focused and made it enjoyable. Had I been building this as a solo effort, I might have enjoyed it less. The extensive decal work can take a lot out of a person, but I couldn't give up as I had a mission and a deadline.
Would I build it again? Hard to say... Good thing I have enough gunpla to choose from I won't have to think about it for awhile.
Pros: Excellent engineering, two core fighters, hands are plentiful and of good design, transformation!
Cons: Very limited posability, both Mech and rifle fall apart very easily, takes some effort to put core fighter into upper torso which may lead to damage of decals, too many decals!
Colours used:
Tamiya TS-37 Lavendar
Tamiya TS-56 Brilliant Orange
Mr. Hobby 8 Silver
Topcoat: Mr. Hobby Gloss
Decals: Bandai Victory Gundam decals (x2)
Parts: Aurora stickers for the eyes.
My first thoughts when putting together this kit, "Wow, this thing is really small."
My final thoughts when seeing the completed kit among his new friends on my work desk, "Wow, this thing is really small."
There's a lot going on with this kit, and this seems to be a staple of the Version Katoki kits. I prefer my kits to be a little advanced when it comes to engineering so this was a good thing. The transformation gimmick added to the impressiveness of such a small kit.
Let's have a look at this kit in its different modes.
Looks very Y-Wingish, if you ask me.
How do you get this thing into its different configurations? For the most part, it isn't terribly difficult. You do need patience and a light touch. Paying particular care and attention not to scrape off a decal when switching. Don't ask me how I know.You have three different sections; The bottom half (for the bottom fighter), The top half (for the top fighter) and the core fighter. I really am impressed that they gave you enough pieces to make two different fighters, one for Victory and another for Hexa. Two complete core fighters? I'll take 'em!
Start off like this:
Move some things around.
click/snap
Voila! Just attach the Core fighter and you're good to go. This was the easy half.
The Victory Crab makes another appearance!
I had wanted to pose my Victory in some cool action shots but it proved too difficult and I lost patience and gave up. In order to get this guy on the stand you have to attach him by the bottom of the skirt, however, that part is made to open and flip so it never stays together tightly enough to allow the stand attachment to grab hold. The result was my Victory kept falling off the stand and hitting the table. So I said, "Screw it" and just went ahead and transformed him seeing as he wasn't staying together anyways. This is a big drawback for me. With the design of the hips, there is almost no posability. You really only can bend the knees. The arms are slightly better but the construction of the shoulder can get in the way quite easily. This things literally stays together by sliding the bottom half into the top half which means it will come apart just as easily and a lot of times when you don't want it to.
Final word;The fact that I was building this kit as a joint project with a fellow gunplar kept me focused and made it enjoyable. Had I been building this as a solo effort, I might have enjoyed it less. The extensive decal work can take a lot out of a person, but I couldn't give up as I had a mission and a deadline.
Would I build it again? Hard to say... Good thing I have enough gunpla to choose from I won't have to think about it for awhile.
Pros: Excellent engineering, two core fighters, hands are plentiful and of good design, transformation!
Cons: Very limited posability, both Mech and rifle fall apart very easily, takes some effort to put core fighter into upper torso which may lead to damage of decals, too many decals!
